


A Hunter's path is never safe

by Corvus_florensis



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I haven't played any of the DLC, Just a bit of backstory, Post-Campaign, and hopefully good dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-04 23:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15157658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_florensis/pseuds/Corvus_florensis
Summary: After Ghaul's defeat, a lone Huntress reminisces about her father and the lessons he passed on her so long ago, while discussing with her faithful Ghost the future to come.





	A Hunter's path is never safe

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've just finished D2's campaign (thanks for the free weekend btw, ya fucking maniacs) and by the end I'm just sitting with my guardian looking at the Traveler while I think "Well, it's going to be a while before I see that sight again!" and then I think, "let's write what I feel about this!" So that's how this came to be :D
> 
> Also, I understand very little about Destiny lore soooo... sorry about anything I might've gotten wrong ><

As Zara strolled through the courtyard, she thought to herself that you could never have guessed that the Tower had been under Cabal control for several weeks. 

Sure, there were innumerous holes in the wall and the whole structure had a distinct feel that it could fall apart in a couple of minutes, but it just looked so alive. There were civilians walking here and there, not just vendors but armed guards, now that the number of Guardians had dwindled even more. The Cryptarch was still decondind his precious engrams, Lord Shaxx was still trying to hype people up for the next Crucible match, even though several Guardians were glaring at him and his excitement as they walked. Across the courtyard, she could see Tess Everis setting up the Eververse while Kadi 55-30 was trying to give all the packages that had been stuck with him ever since the Red Legion took control of the City.

People were just trying to get back to normal. Pretend that nothing had changed and get on with their lives.

Of course, everything had changed. Zara knew that much. Hell, she even had a part in changing it, she reckoned.

The Tower was in ruins, but it was not the only thing. The Guardians, the immortal defenders of the Light, the Traveler and the Last City, have just taken a pretty epic beating, to say the least. The enemy showed up at their door, unannounced, and just obliterated their defenses and cut their connection to the Light. For many Guardians, it was the first real encounter they had with mortality in a very long time. They were still trying to process it. Zara didn't have that problem. Maybe that's one of the reasons she was able to survive while so many other Guardians fell by the Legion's hand, even before she found the Traveler's Shard and was able to wield the Light again. 

Zara's father made sure she would never forget that Death was always coming, and it was coming for everything in the Universe. It was coming for Humans and Awoken and Exos just as it was coming for the Hive, the Cabal and the Fallen. She remembers how he gave her a rifle when she was a child, in one of their expeditions to Venus, so long ago. She had a Hobgoblin in her sights, the Vex unaware that she was about to watch as it's eye would shut down and his shell would be nothing more than a broken container. Zara was ready to take the shot, when her father placed his hand on her shoulder and said: "Are you sure it will end it?"

Zara wasn't sure.

"I'm sure."

But she wasn't going to admit that. 

"You know what will happen if it doesn’t, don't you?"

"It will."

He seemed to ignore her. "It will them share this information across his local network, and soon every Vex in this jungle will be coming for us. And since our ship is stationed 5 or 6 miles from where we currently are, I'm guessing there won't be enough time for us to head back. So... are you sure you wanna take that shot?"

Zara was afraid. She didn't know if her father was telling the truth, and if he was, then she knew that he was serious. They would be dead, and that was a fact.

Before he could say more though, she lined up the shot again, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. 

The Hobgoblin only had the time to look in their direction before his power core was blown to bits, and his radiolarian fluid seemed to spill all over the leaves in the ground. Zara looked at her father, a smug grin in her face.

"Told you it would end him."

Her father was not looking at the Vex. He was looking right at her. In fact, it was as if nothing else in that planet mattered except for his daughter. "Child... never forget this: a Hunter's path is never safe. The wild will be your home, and every tree will be your doorstep. But you are not master of the jungle, for the jungle has no master. Never forget the taste of fear, for fear is the only way to keep danger away. As sure as Death came for that machine today, it may come for you tomorrow. We are all predator and prey at some point in our lives, never forget this lesson."

Zara finally understood the lesson. Why the stakes had to be real, for the lesson to be real. "What will I do, the day I'll become prey? The day Death comes for me?"

Her father looked deeply inside her bright, green eyes. "You give her a damn good Hunt." He then lowered his gazed and laughed a bit. When he raised it again, his eyes were glimmering as he touched her face. "Your mother would be so proud of you. She would have taken the shot too. Remember: at the end of the day, a choice must be made. To stay still and do nothing is the only sure way for you to die." 

Zara didn't know what to say. Her father didn't spoke much about her mother, but when he did, he always seemed unusually kind, different than the hard man she knew all her life. She put on her hood and followed her father out of the jungle.

She was taken out of her daydream as she heard the voice of her Ghost close by:

"Hey, Guardian! Is everything all right?" The Ghost's shell seemed worried, while his single blue eye looked quizzically at Zara.

She lowered her hood and took out her helmet as she responded. "I'm fine, Little Light. Just thinking about change and stuff." She proceeded to untangle her purple hair out of its usual ponytail, letting the mess of purple strains loose. 

She could see that her companion didn't like the nickname, even though she told him it was both fitting and adorable. "A lot has changed in the past weeks. Are you talking about something specific?"

Deciding that the fall from grace of the Guardians was a little too depressing to address aloud right now, Zara told the Ghost about something else that was bothering her:

"So, Zavala has decided, by himself, that Hawthorne would serve as the liaison between the Vanguard and the people of the City. I'm a little worried about what this means for us."

"What are you worried about?"

"It's just that... making decisions out of the goodness of your heart is all well and good in the moment but give it enough time and it all comes back to haunt you. I just think that Zavala should have taken this matter with Ikora and Cayde first, that's all."

The Ghost seemed to be considering. Zara found it was hard to know for sure with the little machines.

"You may be right. But do you honestly think that Ikora or Cayde would happen to have something negative to say about this decision?"

"That's a good question. I don't think Cayde would be against it. It's just someone else to do the chores he should be doing. And ever since Io I think Ikora's been a little too shaken up. Do you remember, us jumping around the City last night while she and Zavala were practically holding funerals for each other?" She gave a little laugh.

"I remember Cayde scolding them for doing speeches as they were about to die."

"Yeah. That was quite a moment." She holds her thoughts for a second before saying "You know, I think that's part of the reason why I like him more than the others. Beneath all the sarcasm and the bad jokes, he sees the world as only a true Hunter does. There's no space for speeches in the battlefield, because it's not a noble thing. It's ugly and dirty and at the end of it you are either dead or alive. No middle ground. Even his comments are ways of diverting the tension and helping him stay alive. It's impressive, honestly."

The Ghost seemed almost curious as he asked: "Was he the reason you chose to become a Hunter?"

"Ha! As if. I didn't choose to become a Hunter, Little Light. It's in my blood. My father was a Hunter, my... my mother was a Hunter. It has always been my destiny."

The Ghost looked at the Traveler in the horizon, the massive globe that held the Light that the Guardians had given up so much to protect.

"Well" the Ghost finally said, "I think it's safe to say you've been doing a good job so far, so... I guess it really was your destiny."

"Thank you. But a Guardian is nothing without her Ghost." They both looked at the Traveler, now finally awoken from its ancient slumber. "What do you think this means for us? The Traveler awakening and all that?"

"I think it's still hard to say. Ghaul proved to our enemies that we could be made mortal, that we could not only bleed, but also die, for good. It's improbable that our other enemies won't take advantage of this knowledge. Besides that... the Traveler did just light a torch in the middle of the City saying that it's Light is very much alive. I believe that the Darkness will not let us savor in this victory for too long."

"It seems like Death is always at our doorstep, doesn't it?"

"Yes." The Ghost seems almost afraid. "I just pray we don't see the day where it crosses our threshold."

"Well" Zara says as she materializes her rifle in front of her, checking it's ammo and status "if that day comes, we'll see it through together, I promise. And if Death does call us by name, well... we just do what every Hunter is supposed to do when it suddenly becomes prey."

"And what is that?" the Ghost asks, curiously.

Zara puts on her hood before answering "We give her a damn good hunt."

**Author's Note:**

> First work, not my native tongue so, as the Doctor says... be kind.


End file.
